Menu

December 4th – December 10th

The Valley Nerd Watch!

If you are a grad student: speak to your union rep and your adviser and whoever else you can rely on for advice. The tax bill that looks like it’s going to pass might make it no longer possible for you to remain in your program. If you can’t afford to stay in graduate school, it’s better to find out earlier rather than later.

Also come to Nerd Nite Monday, December 11th at the World War II Club in Northampton! It’s going to be about plane crashes and how to survive them, as well as dancing! It’ll be fun and scary for different reasons to different people!

Are you a fan of Greenfield Games? Of course you are! They’re an excellent local shop that sells you games that you love. And now thanks in part to the efforts of roaming board game evangelist Justin Dowd, they have a regular Saturday Games Night! Head to Greenfield Games every Saturday to play some board games with pals!

THIS WEEK

Art:

Take a break from your day to learn about the history of landscape painting in Europe! Alla Rosenfeld will let you in on all the secrets of landscape painting in Europe, like how it is all these artists could afford a nice trip to Europe to paint!

Using stamps and colored pencils as well as markers and more, you’ll be able to create works of art! That you can mail! Which technically includes all non-installation artwork, but definitely especially includes postcards! Grades 5-12 welcome, sign up in advance because space is limited!

Board Games:

Play board-games with friends and soon-to-be-friends as well as some of the friendly staff at Modern Myths! It’s a great night to try out something you may have been meaning to check out! We really recommend Istanbul or Photosynthesis if they’ve got those. Chill, entertaining games of friendly competition.

Heroes! Clicking? It’s impossible to resist. This time, make your Heroclix only characters with Strange in the name! That’s Dr. Strange, Hugo Strange, and it’s not our job to find everything for you we got you started with some now find a full team.

From the site: “The Odyssey Bookshop is thrilled to host a brilliant group of children’s book creators for a group signing. The perfect holiday gift for someone special in your life–or for your own personal collection! Can’t make it to the event? Pre-order a book in-store or online and we’ll get it signed and personalized for you! (We also offer free gift wrapping and we can ship worldwide!)”

From the site: “Red and Lulu make their nest in a particularly beautiful evergreen tree. It shades them in the hot months and keeps them cozy in the cold months, and once a year the people who live nearby string lights on their tree and sing a special song: O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree. But one day, something unthinkable happens, and Red and Lulu are separated. It will take a miracle for them to find each other again. Luckily, it’s just the season for miracles. . . ” Halloween!

More than 42 million people in the US are from other countries! America has always been a haven for people seeking refuge with some really important exceptions and also super not recently. During the current horrific anti-immigrant rhetoric, it’s a good idea to remind yourself that recipes from other cultures are amazing and that we owe everyone who immigrates to America a lot! Samples from the book will be available to taste, and $5 from each sale will go to the ACLU!

Card Games:

A limited booster draft featuring the newest set: Unstable! Entry is $18 and there’s a hard cap of 16 players so sign up early! Prizes are at least a booster pack per player plus packs per round win and some promo cards and more! Delightfully stable prize pool for a delightfully unstable night of cards!

Comic Books:

A monthly meetup to discuss and share your favorite comics! You’ll also get a chance to create one of your own with provided artist supplies! Intended for elementary, tween, and teen readers and artists!

Saturday, December 9th

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM

Graphic Novel Club (Ages 11-17) and Teen Craft (Avatar Creations)

Registration required! Crafts and comics, the best of both worlds! Register by sending an email to teens@joneslibrary.org!

Community:

Meet the authority at a catered free event! Eat food and let the administrators of the Town of Palmer know exactly what you think is important! Discuss topics that have a direct bearing on your existence with people who might be able to cause things to change for the better!

Computers:

The Foundry [24 Main St., Northampton, MA] at 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Northampton Webdive – After Work

A regular meetup of people who do web dev work! It’s a great place to meet and chat about your work and also fun stuff you do!

Entertainment:

Kandie Carle presents a show-and-tell! This is going to include dressing “Elizabeth Bennett” and “Mr. Darcy”, as well as sharing passages from Austen’s work! Ms Carle will give this detailed overview of clothing all while dressed in authentic Regency attire! Discover how important fashion can be!

Watch anime! Watch one about robots! Gundam, maybe? There are more than one Gundam series, right? We just heard about one episode being so bad it was expelled from the canon, which could be fun to watch!

Kids:

Deanna Cook will demonstrate recipes from her new book Baking Class, and kids will have an opportunity to design their own treats at a cookie decorating station! Free and open to the public, suggested for ages 6-12!

Movies:

Pizza and a movie: the ultimate chance to have pizza and also watch a movie. Teens, don’t let this slip by! This is your chance to have pizza and watch a film! It’s a hoot to do so with pals!

Thursday, December 7th

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Film & Discussion Series: 13th

From the site: “Join us for “13th” – a powerful documentary which explores the history of race and the criminal justice system in the United States, by Ava DuVernay, the director of Selma. The first half of this film was viewed at the October meeting. Tonight, we will view the second half and discuss it.” Free and open to the public!

Friday, December 8th

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Teen Lounge: Movie – Valerian (PG-13)

See the spectacle from acclaimed spectacle-creator and slightly less acclaimed narrative-maker behind The Fifth Element and Lucy, Luc Besson! At the least it’ll have very cool looking images in it.

Steve Gleason was diagnosed with ALS at age 34. He chose to use his last years to try to live life to its fullest, and chronicled it for his unborn son. You’re invited to stay after for a discussion about the film and ALS hosted by Sunderland Resident Madelyn Griffin, a family friend of the Gleasons.

RPGs:

A monthly D&D club for players 8-12! You can become a member of this club by prepaying $50. That gets you help with creating a character, a mini, a custom D&D session, and a set of dice! It’s the perfect way to play a fun game with friends! We recommend you play a bard. Actually everyone should play as a bard and you should be adventurers by day and a traveling band by night!

RPGs are great! Play Noirlandia, or Questlandia, or Dread, or Monsterhearts, or Apocalypse World, or Dogs in the Vineyard, or One Thousand and One Nights, or any of a lot of amazing games created right here in this Valley! They’re all very good!

Play one of the classic RPGs at Modern Myths! New players are always welcome, and there’s a friendly crowd there every week! We recommend playing fast and loose, since it’s a drop-in drop-out game, so worst case you can come back in a few months with your bard’s ‘long-lost uncle who’s also secretly a god’.

Become a hero! Join the Pathfinder Society and seek out bold new adventure in this fantasy role-playing game! It’s limited to seven people on a first-come first-serve basis, but it’s not a bad idea to stop by and say hi even if it fills up! There’s always more adventure on the way!

Players will take on the roles of characters from a variety of genres thrust into the city at the center of reality as refugees! There will be goblins in this one and there will also be an elimination style baking competition so if you’ve been waiting to play Chopped but with goblins, this is your hour!